[Album Review]: Melanin 9 “Magna Carta”

They say knowledge is the key to life. Stemming his own set of laws for Hip Hop and wanting to learn becoming a passion that comes with understanding the context of what you are told and how you understand it, Melanin 9 has successfully interoperated the everyday surroundings and environment to seal his self teaching through confirmed information that he as converted over to Magna Carta. His first album. Just him and how he feels. And how he wanted to do this. No comprising.

Melanin 9 is one extraordinary human being. He is not different from you and I in the physical form, however his analysis of all that he has consumed throughout living has allowed him to express himself in a context that we as population have put aside to be able to conform and deny the truth that the album displays. The realisation of the political, solar, financial and racial structures of our country are just a few topics that are highlighted and bought to our attention through his personal journey that has allowed him to carefully compose and construct a perspective through the use of music to educate the nation.

“11.08” introduces us to an unusual technical disconnection sound delving away from the norm and diving into the mind pool of a man asking “is this an art form”. And where Melanin is an artist that cannot be boxed and stereotypically packed, the story and transformation of ourselves learning something new begins. “Colour Blind” is a Magna Carta dictionary explanation of the world. From health issues worldwide homes and the prison system, he challenges our mind and the way we are trained to think and live. With the back track on an inconsistent beat with uncomfortable chords identifying the dystopia he rhymes about, the Luciferian doctrine is alive and rampant. Switching up the genre to a warmer scale “Red Snow” takes us to the streets to where we are losing our male generation. The mid tempo use of Jazz and grand piano opening, enlightens listeners to his past. From a fatherless relationship social services system, Melanin relives the emotional gritty upbringing of Nature vs. Nurture on this soul defining record.

While it is clear that his influence and the love of the Rap art form is hailed from the American Hip Hop culture, Magna Carta stands firm in waving the British flag in depicting the economical and stereotypical story of the culture and way to live in our country have become set in stone. With his crew Triple Darkness and tracks like “Organised Democracy, Heartless Island and White Russian” Melanin and the crew deliver the continuation of the street life persona undertaken to stay alive in the job description and title. Asking “has freedom got a shotgun” we’re made to really sit down and not just think about the lyrics but also ourselves, and how and why we perceive life the way we do. The back tracks throughout the album are real life take to relating to the sounds we hear everyday. From sirens to shots being fired, police turning their volume up on their voice to be heard, this is at real as it gets. Informing us all to educate and reform from what society is passively conforming us to become through the use of the media, and the ignorance of an intimidated segregation of people that choose not to understand the mind set and reality that some do have it hard, the album boasts positively while encouraging all of not allowing anyone to undermine who you are. “Magna Carta” infuses the Japanese sounds with wildlife on a lyrical experience to hold on to life. Explaining the outcome of living for others and not truly for you Melanin spits why death is around the corner if we are not able to take heed from those who love us. However “Love’s Stencil” highlights that a love from a woman can make that break from fantasy into reality and Madame Pepper takes the reigns and brings us on home with the moral of the story.

They say knowledge is the key to life. And Melanin 9 has made Magna Carta your mother father best friend or loved one that couldn’t give you that time to inform you of all the questions that Magna Carta has poetically answered in the way you know you can understand it. The music and lyrics have been placed strategically throughout Magna Carta to gain total impact, so that Professor Melanin could deliver his hypothesis experiment and conclusion to us the students. This is Magna Carta.